Last updated: 1 August 2026
Hanyu does not collect, transmit, or store any personal information. There is no account, no analytics, no advertising, and no server.
That is the whole policy. The rest of this page only explains why it can be that short, and what the app does on your own device.
Everything. Hanyu keeps your progress — the words and characters you've learned, review schedules, XP, streaks, and finished lessons — in the app's private storage on your device. It is never uploaded anywhere, because there is nowhere to upload it to.
The dictionary (34,087 entries), all vocabulary, characters, grammar and example sentences are bundled inside the app when you install it. Hanyu works with the network switched off, permanently, by design.
Microphone — only in the Shadowing exercise, where you record yourself to compare your pronunciation with the model. The recording is played back on your device and discarded. It is never uploaded, stored after the exercise, or sent anywhere. Hanyu asks for the microphone the first time you open that exercise; if you decline, the rest of the app works normally.
Files — only when you tap "Back up now" or "Restore". Hanyu writes a backup file to a folder you choose, and reads one back if you ask it to. It cannot see any other file on your device, and it never opens a file you did not select.
The optional one-time unlock (HSK 2–6) is processed entirely by Google Play or the App Store. Hanyu receives only the store's yes/no answer to "does this device own the unlock" and stores that answer on the device. No payment details, name, or email ever reach the app.
A backup is a plain .json file containing your progress. It is yours: Hanyu writes it where you tell it to and does nothing else with it. If you choose to put it in a cloud folder or email it to yourself, that copy is then governed by that service's privacy policy, not this one.
Hanyu also opts out of Android's automatic device backup, so your progress is not included in the copy Android keeps in your Google account. "Nothing leaves your phone" is meant literally — which is exactly why the backup file above exists. Please use it: it is the only copy of your progress there is, and a lost or reset phone without one cannot be recovered.
Hanyu is a study tool suitable for all ages. It collects nothing from anyone, so it collects nothing from children either.
Bundled reference data comes from CC-CEDICT (mdbg.net, CC BY-SA 4.0), Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public Licence), the official HSK 3.0 wordlists, and the Tatoeba corpus (CC BY 2.0 FR). These are content licences; none of them involve any data about you.
Questions about this policy: puttosensei@gmail.com
If Hanyu ever changes what it does with data — for example, adding optional cloud sync — this policy will change first, the "Last updated" date will move, and the store listing's data-safety answers will be updated to match. The current promise stands until then: nothing is collected, nothing is sent.